John Wayne has his first leading role in this B&W 1930 western shot in early 70mm wide screen. Both John Ford and Gary Cooper had to pass on this film, but Ford told the director Raoul Walsh about a young prop man that he liked the looks of, and after a screen test, Raoul put the Duke into the films lead role, as a trapper who is seeking to find the killers of his fellow trapper, who had his furs stolen. During his quest is takes a job as a scout for a large wagon train of settles headed across the Oregon Trail in 1843, because he has a notion that the villains, he is after, are among the people on the wagon train. There is a love interest and attempts on Coleman's (Wayne) life when the bad guys want to take him out as a witness to their crimes. This DVD has the 35mm version, which is short about 14 mins that the 70mm version has.

I’m not a Western’s fan but seeing young John Wayne on the cover made me buy it.

My husband is a movie fanatic. He watches them often and so far, no problems.

another good classic john wayne movie ta add to my classic movie collection

And it shows. Worth watching for fans, but not one of my favs for the Duke.